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🏮 Hetomato

ヘトマト

Fukue, Nagasaki (Yamashiro Shrine) · Every year in mid January

123 days to go
Rooms around Fukue, Nagasaki fill up while the festival is on.

Hetomato is a Little New Year event passed down since ancient times in the Shimozakiyama district of Fukue Island in the Goto Islands, Nagasaki Prefecture. This strange festival begins every year on the third Sunday of January at Shirahama Shrine. Its origin and etymology are completely unknown, and the official Goto City website also states they are "unknown"; it has continued to this day without adding any later-invented explanation. The festival starts with shrine sumo, then continues with hanetsuki played by women in formal dress atop a sake barrel, and then with a ball-kicking contest in which young men smeared with soot fiercely struggle over a straw ball. The soot-smearing, called Hegura, is regarded as a custom that promises freedom from illness, and spectators are also smeared with soot one after another. The climax is the appearance of a large straw sandal weighing 350 kilograms, which strong young men parade through the settlement. The scene is bold and bizarre as they catch unmarried women, place them on the large straw sandal, and toss them vigorously up and down. Originally, the ritual events were held on different days, but because they are now condensed and held on a single day, it has become a series of many different events unfolding one after another.

Getting there

Held in the Shimozakiyama district on Fukue Island in the Goto Islands. To reach Fukue Island, it is about 30 minutes by plane from Nagasaki Airport to Goto Fukue Airport, or about 3 hours by ferry from Nagasaki Port.